You may have noticed on your favourite liquor store shelf recently the appearance of beer made by two breweries, the so-called “collaboration brew”. Collaborations have been around for a long time, but in the past couple/few years have increased in… Continue Reading →
Happy Halloween! My CBC RadioActive beer column on Friday took a look at what beer might be appropriate to serve on this day of spookiness. You can listen to it here. I started with the obvious, mentioning beer names and… Continue Reading →
This morning my plan was to publish the latest in my series of new brewery profiles (I am trying to catch up with the wave). But then I read Jason van Rassel’s thoughtful piece about the state of brewing in… Continue Reading →
With all the young, flirtatious upstarts popping up around Alberta, gathering the attentions of the wandering-eye beer consumer, one wonders what the established craft breweries need to do to re-capture some of the attention that used to go their way…. Continue Reading →
Earlier this summer in a couple of my columns I mused about the expanded use of the term “session” and whether it really was appropriate. You can read the Beer 101 column here or, if you prefer the Planet S/Prairie… Continue Reading →
A few weeks back I was perusing the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines (yes, I do that for fun) and reflecting how many styles are anchored in a particular region. Not just the obvious of Germany, England and Belgium, but also… Continue Reading →
I always like the end of June. In part because that is Vue Weekly’s annual Beer Issue. Sure, I like the fact that the issue gives me a fair bit of column inches (usually I write 3 different pieces), but… Continue Reading →
I was challenged the other day by a representative of a unnamed brewing corporation. They claimed that my columns were biased against the big brewers and that I was providing distorted and misleading information about them. Specifically they took offense… Continue Reading →
Recently I have had a couple of odd interactions with customers at one of my beer tasting events. I would be chatting about a beer and the person (so far always male, but not making any generalizations) would ask “how… Continue Reading →
Saturday is a big day in the beer world. Okay, maybe not St. Patrick’s Day big or Super Bowl big, but for beer fans who appreciate history and quality, It is a pretty big day. April 23, 2016 marks the… Continue Reading →